


Skater Boys

by fandomramblings



Series: Malex Week 2020 [3]
Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Fluff, M/M, Malex Week 2020, POV Alex Manes, Skateboarding, Teen Malex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:00:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25273567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fandomramblings/pseuds/fandomramblings
Summary: Michael teaches Alex how to skateboard and they learn a few things about each other in the process. Set before Smells Like Teen Spirit. Warning for a slight bit of homophobia.
Relationships: Michael Guerin/Alex Manes
Series: Malex Week 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1831072
Comments: 7
Kudos: 48





	Skater Boys

**Author's Note:**

> Malex Week 2020 Day 3. Prompt: Teen Malex “I can explain”. Inspired by that short scene in 1x06 where Alex is holding a skateboard. I really can take the tiniest thing and run with it. Malex just really inspires me!

“Do you ever ride that thing?” Liz asked as she and Alex headed across the parking lot to her car. “Or is it just for show.”

Alex bumped his skateboard against his leg. “I’ve ridden it,” he grumbled. The skateboard was Gregory’s. He had given it to Alex a few weeks back for his 16th birthday. He had tried riding it a bit, but he mostly liked to carry it around. It went well with his carefully curated look. 

“Rosa could teach you,” Liz said cheerfully. “She rides still, I think.”

“That’s alright Liz.” Alex smiled. “I guess it _is_ more of an accessory.”  


“You’re such a dork Manes.”  


“Come on. I’ll learn eventually.” Alex grumbled, but he wasn’t really upset. Liz liked to tease him. “Thanks for the ride home. You’ve had the car every day this week. What’s up with that?”  


Liz shrugged, her bubbliness subsiding a bit. “Rosa’s been grounded again,” she muttered.  


Alex nudged her shoulder. “She’ll grow out of it.” He encouraged. To his surprise, Liz stopped walking and hugged him. He held her for a moment. It was nice. They pulled away when the heard a voice.   


“Ortecho!” It was Kyle Valenti. Alex scowled. “Any after school plans?” He raised his eyebrows suggestively. Liz flipped him the bird and linked her arm through Alex’s, pulling him along to the car, muttering ‘imbécil’ under her breath. 

“ _He_ won’t grow out of it.” Alex deadpanned. Liz giggled.

“You won’t get anywhere with that one Ortecho!” Kyle yelled after them. Alex cringed.  


“Ignore him.” she insisted.   


“You know.” He mused as they climbed into the car. “I bet I could use the board to hit people.”  


She put the vehicle in reverse. “Yeah, if only his dad weren’t the sheriff.”  


***  


Liz dropped Alex off at the Manes mailbox and headed off toward the Crashdown.   


“Start somewhere easy.” She called out the window as he headed up the walk. “Maybe a parking lot.” 

Alex rolled his eyes, but as he reached the front door he was struck with a familiar dread. His father liked his sons to be home by six o’clock on school days. It was quite silly, Alex thought, to enter the house any earlier than he needed to. And Liz did have a point. Carrying the skateboard around wasn’t much use. He spun on the heel of his spiked boot and headed down the sidewalk. There was a grocery store parking lot nearby. Alex had seen them re-paving it a few weeks back. It should be a nice smooth surface to start. 

He popped his earbuds in and clicked play on his mp3 player. He was almost done with a Matchbox Twenty song when he reached the parking lot. There weren’t many cars. Just a few SUVs and a greenish-blue pick-up truck. His father didn’t shop here. It was as good a place as any.

Alex set his backpack down against the brick wall of the store where he could keep an eye on it, and then carefully set the board on the pavement in front of him.   


Then he stood there and did nothing. This was stupid. If only Gregory had had a chance to teach him before he shipped out. Alex sighed. With his favorite brother out of the house, things had gotten even worse at home. Resigned to just carrying the board around for the rest of high school, Alex bent down to pick it up.  


“You’ve had that thing for weeks. Even I had passed the parking lot stage by then.”   


Alex looked up. Walking across the parking lot from the direction of the pick-up truck was the infamous Michael Guerin.  


Alex stared at him stupidly. “Uh…” He cleared his throat. “I can explain.”

Guerin reached him and crossed his arms. He was wearing a green flannel and a baseball cap. His unruly curls stuck out from underneath it. Alex couldn’t help but notice that the flannel wasn’t buttoned all the way up. Guerin had always been a bit of a showboat, but this was a new quirk. Alex didn’t mind it actually. Crap! Was he blushing? He looked back up at Geurin’s face.

“I’m waiting,” he teased. 

“I uh…” Come on Manes. Use your words. “Greg was gonna teach me but he uh…” he trailed off pathetically. This was the worst.

“Which brother is that?” Guerin asked, reaching out and taking the board from Alex’s hand, who flinched.  


“Second oldest.” He blurted in an attempt to distract from the awkward moment. “You skateboard?”

Michael shrugged. “Used to,” he said, and left it at that.

Alex shuffled between his feet and watched Michael spin the skateboards wheel with a single finger. 

“I could teach you,” he said, smiling his rakish grin again. “One lessons not much, but it’s a start.”

If Alex had few words before he had none now.

“Dark and mysterious,” Michael said, plowing right through the awkwardness with his usual charm. “I like it.” He set the skateboard on the ground and put his right foot on it. 

“First step. Pick a foot, and stick with it. It isn’t always your dominant one, but it is for me.”  


Alex nodded. Still silent. 

“It can actually be helpful to just stand on it first. You steer by leaning. So it helps to practice that while staying still.” Guerin continued. He stepped on the board with his right foot in the front and turned his body sideways. Then he began to tilt the board back and forth. Every time it looked like the board was about to flip, he would correct back in the other direction. He hopped off backward. Show off.

“Wanna try it?”

Focusing on Guerin’s demonstration Alex had been able to regain some chill. “Okay,” he said. 

The other boy moved aside, and Alex picked his right foot to lead and stood up on the board. This wasn’t so bad. 

“Tilting remember.” Guerin urged. Alex shook his head to clear it and began to shift his weight. Leaning forward was fine, but in the opposite direction, he tipped backward a bit too much. 

“Woah there.” There was a steadying hand on Alex’s back. Alex was all of a sudden very aware of Guerin’s breathing on his neck.

“Thanks.” He choked and readjusted. Guerin’s hand was gone then and he stepped back again. 

Alex tilted back and forth a few more times and then stepped off. “Got it.”

“Cool. Next, we move.” Guerin put his right foot on the front of the board. “Not too far forward or back. You just have to get a feel for the right position.”

Alex nodded again.

“Now I find it helps to just treat it like a handleless scooter. Don’t think about falling. Balance will come naturally as long as you stay calm.”

Alex was impressed. Guerin was always so curt and closed off at school. He was surly to the teachers and hardly ever turned in his schoolwork, even though Alex had heard rumors that he was like a secret genius or something. He had never heard Guerin talk this much since he had moved to Roswell back in middle school.

Guerin pushed off the ground and leaned forward slightly. After a few pumps, he put his left foot on the back of the board and then adjusted his stance. Then he leaned backward and made a gradual loop, rolling up next to Alex with a grin.  


“Woo. I missed that.”

Alex was smiling now. He wanted to do that. “That looks fun!”

“Take it slow,” Guerin warned and hopped off the board. Alex used his foot to line it up in front of him. Then he put his right foot on just like Guerin had and pushed off the ground.

He didn’t move as fast or as smoothly as the other boy, but he didn’t fall. He also turned, but not as sharply. It wasn’t as hard as he’d thought. The tip about the handless scooter was very helpful. He had one of those as a kid. Alex picked up the board and headed back toward Guerin.

“Thanks a lot,” he said. 

The other boy nodded. “You’re a natural.”

Alex smiled. He was feeling emboldened by his success. “What happened to your board anyway?” he asked.

Guerin, who had been smiling back at Alex, looked away. “Foster brother broke it.” He said. “He claimed it was a mistake and you know it was his word against mine.”

“Oh,” Alex said, clutching the board in his hands. Then he remembered something. “You know I think my brother Clay had one a while back. I don’t think anyone would miss it. Would you like it?”  


“Why would you do that?” Guerin asked. He looked legitimately perplexed. 

“Uh, payment,” Alex said. “For the lesson. I owe you.”

That seemed to sit better with Guerin, who grinned. “Sure. Thanks Manes!”

Alex frowned. “Alex is fine. I’m not such a fan of the last name.”

Michael nodded. “Thanks, Alex.”

Alex smiled again. He liked the sound of his name on the other boy's lips. “I’ll bring it to school tomorrow.”

“See you then,” Guerin said. Then he gestured back towards the truck. “Biology homework.”

Alex’s gaze followed the gesture. Why would Guerin be doing homework in his truck?

“Okay.” He said, not wanting to ask. This was the longest he and Guerin had ever talked for and he didn’t want to mess it up by overstepping.

The two boys waved at each other and then Guerin headed back to his truck. Alex picked up the board and headed for his backpack.  


He managed to ride a little bit on the way home. It was harder with the bumps in the sidewalk but it still felt pretty good. Alex was smiling when he arrived at the house, thinking about Guerin and his flannel, holding his skateboard. The feeling of dread was less than it had been earlier and when he passed the kitchen and saw his father standing at the counter with a glass of whiskey, he just thought about Guerin’s steadying hand on his back and it helped with the uneasy feeling he always got when under his father’s gaze.   


That evening Alex found Clay’s old board underneath some firewood in the shed. It was pretty filthy, so he cleaned it in the utility sink and stuffed it in his backpack. As he lay in bed a night, he was excited for school the next day for the first time in a while. Maybe once he gave Guerin the board they could ride together again. Alex would practice. So this time he could keep up.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and Kudos are much appreciated! Come squeal with me on Tumblr at malex-art!


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